Almagest

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The Moon opposite Mercury

the Moon opposite Mercury, within one nativity or between two charts in synastry

What the tradition reads

Within a single chart the Moon opposite Mercury shares the square's tension between heart and head, described here as even more pronounced, an oscillation between being emotional to the point of irrationality at one moment and purely logical the next. These natives are credited with sparkling wit and imaginative humor, sometimes excelling at satire, their visible chattiness rising and falling with their mood; the struggle between the rational and the irrational stays largely an internal one, the tradition notes, though it is occasionally visible to other people all the same. Between two charts, one person's Moon opposite another's Mercury is read as fostering lively, insightful discussion in which both people openly share their concerns and hopes, the conversation often genuinely enlightening. Mercury can, however, become overly intellectual in the exchange, and the Moon person may feel hurt by a stance that reads, in the moment, as detached rather than engaged.

The story

An opposition sets two bodies a hundred and eighty degrees apart, the full diameter of the circle, the greatest distance either can stand from the other; Ptolemy counts it, together with the square, discordant, set against the trine and sextile's harmony. Hermes is remembered, in the Homeric Hymn that bears his name, as a trickster from infancy, stealing Apollo's sacred cattle before his first day had ended, and as the inventor of the lyre; Selene, by contrast, is defined by patience, her nightly crossing of the sky and her long, unhurried love for the sleeping Endymion. Facing each other across the wheel rather than meeting at all, the Moon's slow feeling and Mercury's quick tongue read here as two tempos that cannot easily be reconciled to a single pace, each fully itself and neither willing to simply wait for the other.

Written from

Corpus key aspect:Moon:Mercury:opposition.